eXP Beginner: Problem booting from CF

[Phillip Harrison]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to eXP and am currently using the eval version. I have an
industrial computer that I'm trying to retrofit to use CF. I'm using a
SanDisk Industrial Grade 1GB CF card and a CF to IDE bridge. I ran TAP on
the machine to generate a component containing all the device drivers. I
added this component and the 'Information Appliance' template to try as a
test image. After deploying the image to my CF card, the PC hangs during
the boot process right after BIOS is done. It stays frozen on the screen
where it lists all the AGP/PCI devices and their IRQs. It detects and
displays the CF card correctly in BIOS, so I know the bridge must be
functioning. I've been trying to follow the instructions in the MSDN,
specifically these:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...p/html/xetbsconfiguringcompactflashdevice.asp

On my 1st try, I formatted the card using FAT16 and ran bootprep /dC from
the target machine. After doing this, I used my development machine to copy
the image over. On my 2nd try, I re-formatted the card using NTFS and
copied the image over again. Both methods give me the same result.

What am I doing wrong here? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Best Regards,
Phillip Harrison

 

[KM]

Phillip,

What tools did you use to partition and format the card?
You should try using fdisk from MS-DOS and run it on the target.

KM

 

[Guest]

I am writing this on this thread as think that they are related, I apologise
in advance if I am wrong.

I think I am experiencing this same problem and I have done a search through
this forum and followed the recommendations to fdisk and format using
DOS6.22. Once this has been done, I am able to boot into DOS located on the
Compact Flash (CF) however as soon as I copy the XPE image which I can copy
and use fine on a HDD, it hangs as in the previous thread. Any ideas as to
why it will work using a HDD and not a CF, it is the exact same XPE image.

Please advise how we may solve this.

Thanks

skylark

 

[KM]

skylark,

And you probably ran bootprep tool on the CF card?

 

[Guest]

KM

I have fdisked the Compact Flash card using DOS6.22, then formated the card
using FAT16 and made it bootable. I have then run bootprep on this compact
flash before installing the XPE files using SDI2HD and when that hasn't
worked I have again tried bootprep on the compact flash on a re
fdisked/formated DOS bootable card. Each time when I then try and run the
installed XPE files from the compact flash is stops when booting just after
the message below.

Updating ESCD...Success

It just stops here, do you know why and how I may fix this problem?

Thanks

Skylark

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi skylak,

What do you mean by: "I have then run bootprep on this compact flash before installing the XPE files using SDI2HD "?
You delete all geometry things that were written by fdisk and format by using sdi2hd. You will have to deploy files by using copy or
other non destructive method.

Regards,
Slobodan

 

[KM]

skylark,

I agree with Slobodan. You should have used SDI2HD tool as you wiping out all the changes you do with fdisk and bootprep.
Or if you still want to use SDI2HD, you can try to repair MBR and PBR manually. IIRC, "fdisk /mbr" command worked for someone from
this NG after the SDI2HD'ing.